Vytautaz did last Anniversary festival quests and achieved level 49. Hurray, now I could equip with some new stuff and delete old one. Later travelled to Angmar and turned in some reputation items. NaktiesKarys just took Hobbit presents.

There was some chating with the Kin. I do confess I lost many interest in Lotro and care very little about things. New regions? New class cap? or a pet maybe? “It matters not”, as Darth Sidious said.

Age of Conan

My Tempest of Set

continued her adventures. Took some quests, some even managed to finish. Electrocution works great so far. I can pick two on-level enemies and fry them. Three enemies may be a problem, but if they are 1-2 levels lower, they are managable. Got new ability to root enemy – maybe it would be handy for the future.

I am determined to cancell “Destiny” quests. they are making me forfeit all Tortage quests.

Otherwise things were going a bit dull. Almost no interest in Lotro (if it’s going to go hardcore mode, it’s not for me) and less interest in AoC. I knew the quests, I knew how easy/hard they were. And I gain nothing from it. New level – yes. Tiny amount of money – yes…nothing more. In Lotro I could earn TPs and buy something. In AoC I could buy points…with real cash only.

Lotro was easy and simple – all thanks to Update 13. Log in Vytautaz, do all Bree festival quests. Log in NaktiesKarys, take Hobbit present. I am not even doing Entwood dailies – see very little reason for this. Kinship talks about first age symbols and whether I got them. Of course, not, thanks to Update 13. And I am indifferent to what happens on Lotro. Fight is almost suicidal, hence not for me, crafting mastered (hence nothing to do). After festival I would have only Hobbit presents to do…and maybe help someone with some easy tasks.

Age of Conan

Necromancer, “NecroAxe” was born. A grumpy looking man smashing his way to endgame. Spellcaster, mediocre melee warrior. Untill lvl.10 it was pain, later I began using my mercyless army of undead, ending with some 6 zombies. Took some quests, but decided to wait for some lvl.20 to go to the dungeons (Ceremonies MAster and alike). Then ran into Destiny quests and ended in killing Strom, the tyran of Tortage. NPC appeared and teleported me to another city. In anger, I deleted al the quests in Tortage – only to find I could return there…

Army of Necromancer was impressive. I could solo things, I could attack target that was behind my range, I could one-shot weaker enemies. And I think it is numbers that count. The more zergs, the better chance for victory.

Fight at the Harbour and with Strom was too hard and no newbie would ever figure out what to do. After many many deaths I had to avoid all combat. Instant teleporting was disappointment for me. Yers, I could have told I want to go to daytime…but wasn’t sure if I would be able to find that NPC. Also, it was not a pleasant thing to see technical problems. Chat not working sometimes for me, sometimes for everyone else (and I got no infractions), then chat not working for all my toons, finally – being unable to post on forums because of…well, because of no logical reason.

New city (can’t remember name) wellcomed me in some Egyptian style, cult of Set and busy market. ALmost thought there would be no killings here.

In short, I enjoyed my Necromancer. With army of undead, he has higher chance to live than any other classes. Priestess of Mitra is not the one I thought to be. Not a ranged self-healing tank. Something very poor in melee and mediocre in spells. AoC should have taken Lotro’s Minstrel as a perfect example.

And so the day has ended. I have almost lost my faith in Lotro and AoC did not take Lotro’s place. My own easy mode low fantasy game is yet to be found. Untill then, will be levelling my own Necros.

Lotro was on maintenance – no official notes, hence probably minor big there and here. After that NaktiesKarys logged in, took Hobbit present and logged off. I have very little arguments to play Lotro. It is becoming hard, lots of players telling it, especially lvl.74-85, it will become harder. It won’t be the game I want to play. I am no more interested in amounts of TPs earned:why should I care if I had five of fifty or half million Turbine points? It matters not, as Darth Sidious once said. What matters are internauts’ searches and they are looking for phrases “Lotro still offline”, “Update 13 is shit”.

Age of Conan

My almost nude big chested blonde Priestess continued her journey. I grew up a bit, now am lvl.16, got 1 supportive spell (just not the ranged one…not satisfied). Took all quests I could. Of course, died many times, it was natural, but fun anyway.

One time was invited by some generous persons to the group and we ran through dungeons. Once even managed to heal teammate. Not too efficient, but still some use from me. Another time tried to fight two lvl.17 (me being lvl.16): dead end. Literally. My toon killed, I think I will wait untill I grow bigger. Visited White sand island, killed some stuff there and here.

Lower level monsters give only 1 xp and do not see me – I run through them unnoticed. It’s good I’m not distracted from normal fighting. Some killing is a bit repetative, like “kill 50 monsters of this type”. Hey, why 50, not 20? Less grind, more fun.

Local community is still nice offering advice when needed, but I have to figure many things myself. That’s not a problem – since Lotro is almost over for me, I have more time for my nudistic Priestess of Mitra.

And so the day has ended. Lotro was of almost zero interest for me (reminds of Darth Sidious: Do what must be done, Lord Vader…looks like I have to leave Lotro behind) and Age of Conan, despite savage world, was of real interest. Soloable, though sometimes very hard, content, good rewards, many things I knew from Lotro (trait trees, teleporting cooldown etc). The day has been good in AoC.

Vytautaz did one or two firework quests, turned in task items 8 times and logged off. NaktiesKarys did one Entwood quest and logged off. StormSong was inactive.

Lotro forums are full of information that lvl.74-85 quests became almost impossible. Many experienced players report mounted Uruks one-two shots anyone. But of course, it does not matter Turbine. If they continue it, one day they will end with 1 or 2 thousands very loyal very hardcore elitists, wanting to plan a raid to kill lvl.10 spider.

Age of Conan

Things were going kind of difficult there. No easy content, everything must be fought for and it does take time. My nude Priestess got a shield and it is shown on her nude body. A pity I can’t take it off.

Reached lvl.10. now I could distribute points in 3 Trait Trees. Somehow they are not new to me….Invested into Vengeance (assault one). Healings are of little use, I should be able to nuke everything. However, this system is more complicated, since it requires to be of certain lvl. Example: “You should have bought 5 upgrades and be lvl.15 to be able to use this”. I also have skillpoints and not investing them – should I waste time to increase climbing skill?

My cleric fought and healed, died many times and first time saw death penalty. Attacking enemy that is higher than you – not reccomended. Aggro means death. Quest book is organized much different than I had in Lotro. No deeds, no in-game “points” (like TPs) to unlock content.

Despite all of this, I enjoyed AoC. It’s fantazy with swords and spells, quests are good and I just feel both a bit lost and good here. I entered Dungeons, fought mobs here, helped other players, they helped me.

And so they day has ended. Life was dull in Lotro (firework-task item-Ent quesat, repeat),kind of interesting in AoC (half-naked Priestess half-nuking wolves, crocodiles, pirates…).

As usually, NaktiesKarys did Entwood dailies. One camp was very succesfull – it featured Half-orcs, much needed for slayer deed. Also had some talk with Kinship, helped kinnie with Sambrog instance (level 20s – I can aid with that).

Vytautaz did Anniversary deeds. He really needs to reach level 49 at least to turn in another type of task items. Thus – fireworking, doing almost all anniversary quests near Bree. Still lacking ~100.000 xp to next level.

Stormsong still stuck with legendary quest: one worm got lost in ‘another dimension’, won’t appear even if I come close.

Age of Conan

Thanks to superb folks at mmorpg.com – looks like finally got my game. Customization was good, I created my (would I stop joking this way?) big-chested Priestess blonde Priestess of Mitra. Ranged class, but initially it is more melee. Bikini outfit was good, later got some rags they would like to call armour (was using broken bottle as a weapon). Local chats were helpfull, when I adresses in New Player Help [NPH], always got response.

Died many times, but thanks to God, death is not that bad – just resurrect and run for revenge. I enjoyed my ranged attack (icon reminds nuclear mushroom) as well as one that pulls enemies further. Yes, Priestess is fragile and cannot fight enemies of higher levels: I tried to kill one lvl.11 Panther and was killed by it.

Surroundings may look a bit brutal, but somehow inviting. Enemies are everywhere, spawn quickly and there are a lot of tasks in starter areas (at least city of Tortage does). Unfortunately, quests did not affect what would happen next. I proudly refused some of them…but it turned out, it had zero impact. A pity. Citizens were interesting too – from public house Mistress (pirates did not pay her girls – I had to deal with pirates and return the payments) to blacksmiths and just thirsty folks wanting wine from the temple. Rewards are normal – got some good weapons this way.

Despite “oh, it’s solo content” – soon ran into Flesh Eaters. SOme genetically modified trees with their own minions. Was killed, had to retreat and did it only with the help of one friendly player. He asked if I wanted to join a Guild. I explained I was a newbie who knows nothing of the game and may ask million questions. He agreed and accepted, helped with Flesh Eaters.

Then they explained some things about game, including “vanity” tab on dressing. I really enjoyed vanity, since it helped to not show ugly piece of rags called “helmet”. My experiments ended in turning off every equipment, so that my nice blonde was running only with strings and a weapon. I laughed at that, but hey, that was funny.

I felt satisfied with the AoC. While not that warm like Lotro, it still may become my new home (as one in Lotro told – “with your motivation – not for long…”) where my Priestess would just nuke everything like Minstrel does. Where I could solo content. Where I won’t be afraid to fight because 2 mobs means death.

And so the day has ended. I felt satisfied with Age of Conan and will try to master my Priestess there. Maybe sun starts shining again for me.

I was expecting Lotro to be updated at some 9-10 PM Lithuanian time…and was surprised Update 13 was ready way faster. Therefore, only NaktiesKarys was active, all other toon would have to wait.

First of all: tons of deeds completed. If you completed, say, Shire or Bree deeds – you get metadeed like “Slayer of Bree land”, receive some 100 marks, 1 key and 1 lootbox, sometimes – rune. I also got some potions, 2 maps and house decoration item. Lootboxes (lvl.10-50) were destroyed, keys deposited, one key and maps donated to kinnie.

Things started with Gandalf’s letter to ride to Rohan. I rode, game crashed, I relogged only to find quest was gone (letter too). Ok, time for the ents. Ride to Saruman’s fortress. And there – wellcome to Update 13…

Fortress looks very nice now. alls destroyed, fortification ruined, underwater levels flooded. Human settlement near former entrance with option to bind there and horse route. No sign of orcs or Saruman’s apprentices. Few fleeing Dunledings (well, guys, you have yourself to blame). An Ent gave me several tasks which I gladly did. Area was active, there were players in every territory. First quest – to search for Orcs in 3 locations (no sign of orcs). Auto-bestowed quests to free Dunlendings trapped in debris and tear up White hand banners. Search for seeds. Plant seeds. And then – move to new map, I will call it Ent Forest (EF).

And the quest in EF looks promising by far. I have to investigate there and here, clean stuff, search for seeds…and then daily quests began. They are made like Wildermore. Go to instance, kill leader. Oh, by the way, do this and that. Rewards – legendary item xp, reputation with the Ents and local barter currency – Fangorn leaves. This is where revamps first showed negative side: I was too weak to fight against 3 level 95 enemies. Health was dropping too quickly, so I had to pick maximum 2 enemies at once. Turbine also made precautions against frequetn use of “del”. If you are to search for stuff, they threw lots of walnut woods – so you target them. With the help of the Kinship I finished all of the daily quests.

I forgot about Turbine points grind. Was looking at my inventory (now I can play with it, resize, increase or decrease slot size). I can purchase 5 slots for some 325 Turbine points. I can lock inventory bag 1, i can make it just one Super Big Bag. I can search in the inventory. Also, we can mail up to 10 items – superb news.

Developers also announced plans for next years. Housing is not an option, no radical revamp planned. A pity. Dear Turbine, please understand: place housing cosmetics under real ca$h shop and you will see how it works. Wanna Roof of Rohan HorseLord – here you are, only 9.99$ and it is bound to your account. Want +5 crooks? Here you are, 5$ each.

New class confirmed, it would be Beorning, capable of chnging into bear. Light armoured (but when did bears need armour?).

First age relics are introduced. Unfortunately, they are rare-very rare drop form instances only. Very unwise move that won’t satisfy neither raiders (they have done every single instance at all difficulties) nor soloers.

Overall by far Update13 is a success. I see Saruman’s fortress destroyed (have this for imprisoning ME! *evil laugh*), I can remember epic scenes from the movie and I am into understaning the world of Ents. There is new activity, and with daily quests I am planning to stay there for a long time, untill I grind Kindred with the Ents (and rep. keeps flowing, almost 5000 first day).

We have also discussed changes in Kinship chat. Some people are complaining about decreased vitality or (like me) First age symbol being practically impossible to get. Others just enjoy the content or keep asking. Most players tend to be satisfied.

And so the day has ended. I had earned 0 Turbine points, but was very happy with the new Update. Life is excellent in Lotro once again.

I think everyone is Lotro waits for Update 13. Some information is leaked even now. Like – those who own Helms Deep expansion, won’t have to purchase and alike. There are some negative information: first age symbols would be extremely rare drops, available only from instances, especially Big Battles. Turbine is making serious mistake there: Big Battles were not succesfull. Raiders disliked them, soloers hated them, nobody enjoyed them much. Instead of accepting mistake (well, everything happens) they are most likely to force us to do this. But I won’t do, I will wait for this symbol to drop as meta-deed reward or appear on Auction house. Prices are expected to be at ~1000 gold coins (I have never had that much). A pity Turbine mistreats players this way. Make it very expensive SKirmish camp item and no one would complain. Make it named lvl.95 monster drop and no one would complain. Just please do not force us.

NaktiesKarys was active and seriously helped by the Kinship. Did all “Big battles”. Disliked them all: too complicated, too difficult, you need to team with extremely experienced player to get good results and some kind of good loot. Mine was lame, trashed all of it. Tried my Engineer, constructed traps and it worked. After advice of kinnies- had to relocate BB trait points, now I invest heavily into constructing and deactivating – maybe it would help me one day. Battle of Hornburg was an impressive one, especially the end. I rode in a field of victory, talked to Gandalf, Theoden, Gimli, Legolas – all legendary characters.

There also was one not so bright moment. My hurry, it one more did wrong things. Once I deleted quest to encourage 4 Rohirrim defenders with emotes. This time some good person on wiki wrote it. I did it, then received tons of quests to do. All rewarding reputation with Helmingas (I’m already Kindred), all advancing slayer deeds (most were already finished). Once again, there were sad stories about towns assaulted, people slained. Had to make one decision for Thane: attack town (suicide mission), flee to Helms Deep (half-suicide) or ask people (they tend to attack town – suicide mission). I chose Helms Deep, half people left only to be slained. Another point: one Thane trusted word of an Half-Orc to call off town attack. She let prisoner go based on his “word of honour”. Of course, half-orcs arrived and only reinfocements saved poor town. Oh, dear Rohirrim, if you only had more brain..

However, I am doing almost every quest in Helms Deep region now and enjoying content. Also, it gives me Westemnet iron coins (and coins means relics) + LI experience. It is good too.

My new main toon, StormSong, started her activity. She does every quest and my gosh, it is a joy. I run, I use hardest attack, mob dead 30 meters away, I wait for 10 seconds and second mob is dead. Aggro would mean problem, have to pick targets one by one. So far did spider slayer, spider slayer adv., brigand slayer, brigand slayer adv., quests in Bree (15) deeds untill lvl.11. Feeling really good and hope life would be very bright with my Minstrel. The only problems are virtues (not sure which to slot) and stances. In agressive -self healing- stance I am overpowered, but of no use to the fellowship. In Melody stance I am healing, but doing 25% less damage and some of iconic attacks are not working as they should.

And so weekend, full of adventures, has ended. I had 5150 Turbine points from various sources:slaying lizards in Nala-Dum, Orcs in Dn, half-orcs in HD, reputation, as well as basic deeds in Bree. Life was very good in Lotro.

Sometimes things just happen. You log in, you are determined to grind last 55 Turbine points…when suddenly something changes your plans and you forget grind.

NaktiesKarys logged in to check Hobbit presents when one kinnie asked if someone was up to one instance (only one instance per some hours is very little in our Kin. But yeah, it may happen). Of course I was. Instance was – Ost Dunhoth, part of “In their abscence” instances. It is level 70s instance, most of were lvl.95, we had tanks and healer. Initially had some problems with gathering sixth person (well, instance requires players to step on a platform and there are 6 platforms). When we finally got one – we started assault. Things were supposed to be easy: with tanks and champions, with healers and pets we were destined for victory. We ran, smashed any “opposition” we encountered, finally ran into some mammoth, ran from it. Then there was a big room full of mammoths and adds. We were told to take care of adds – our tanks would kill mammoths.

Then things went wrong. We were just wiped, no heals helping. One time wiped, second time wiped…had to leave and reorganize to raid. More players, some from other clans (I noticed Greyhammers). Only then we managed Mammoth Room of Death. Then we had to leave, leader started new wing. This time it was easier, we just DPSed monsters. Last wing – we were supposed to kill monster, but were teleported to Grand Stairs in Moria, fought some mobs here while listening to Gandalf’s discussion with Durin’s Bane. Then we were transported to Zirakzil, faced Durin’s Bane, destroyed it quickly, were teleported back again.

Only to see fight with the last monster and mock it while it talked. He talked Gandalf was dead (I replied “Gandalf is alive, u noob!”), he was going to end us blah blah blah. Almost everyone mocked lame monster, I just half-angrily told him to shut up because I had little time to lose.

And then Gandalf himself showed up, made a mess and we finished monster. Instance was finished, I got many valuable relics. Returned to Forlaw, did some daily tasks…and hurray, reputation changed, now only kindred remains (30.000 points while I can get only 2500 a day). I also got 5 TPs for finding Ost Dunhoth.

Vytautas logged in, turned in almost last task items. Today I would have to turn in last ones…and start to fight my way to level 48. There are enough quests for some 20.000 xp points.

And so the day has ended. It was fun to fight in that instance and gain experience as well as get some rewards from loot. WbaF was forgotten as well as her grind. I had 4965 Turbine points, crafted some LI settings. Day has been very good in Lotro.

Vytautaz logged in to turn traditional 5 tasks…and hurray, completed a deed. Vytautaz may now be know as Busy Beeand proudly wear Busy Bee’s cloak. The best rewards was 5 Turbine points. Later he did 2 quests in Angmar: to kill some Priestess and place weapons on Angmarim altars. Quest finished, reputation items looted and used – another reputation reached, yet another TPs.

NaktiesKarys did Wildermore quests and finally finished “Uruk slayer advanvced” deed. Some slayer deeds remain and these are going to be grindy. Later did one Nala-dum run to kill lizards, killed some 18 of them, now have 46 out of 240 needed. It would take long to grind this deed…as well as Morrovail slayer in another Moria instance.

WbaF, my new Minstrel, started her adventures, grinded some Turbine points. In one place I had to compete with lvl.38 rune keeper, lvl.7 Minstrel and one Hunter, otherwise hunt was going good, did some Ered Luin slayer deeds and today am going to finish the last. Minstrell may be a bit…annoying…if sound is on: she just screams and screams and screams.

I am waiting for Update 13…though am a bit scared of making game harder. The bright side – probably First age legendary weapons (it is for them I am crafting lots of relics and rolling for every single relic in instances!), crafting instance…and of course, new quests and Huorn pet! Less enjoying are lootboxes as reward for metadeeds: no thanks, I usually trash all lootboxes. However, let us see what will happen after April 14th.

And so the day has ended. I had 4945 Turbine points (some 55 remain untill magic 5000 TPs), had some fun and am ready for new adventures. Life was very good in Lotro.

Weekend was full of acitivity. Vytautaz turned in task items in Angmar and did random quests to gain xp and reputation. Also, he was supplied with Moria reputation items, hundreds of them…so soon reached Kindred.

NaktiesKarys enjoyed Kinship activity. Crafting halls was started and assaulted many times, skirmish raids in the Way of the Smiths were organized as well. There were more activity, just I can’t remember it all. Finally, I took a liberty to do Crafting Halls solo. It went good, soon I finished meta deed (to do all deed there) and received a meta-metadeed (complete 4 metadeeds). More metadeeds – more instances – more fun, more TPs. Also finished some slayer deeds to advance my virtues. From various Moria/Lothlorien instances I gained hundreds of reputation items as well as sellable loot. Failed one deed – Roots of Fangorn (locked, because I did not purchase this region).

I also was happy to help other kinnies. One of ours seems to enjoy power-levelling. Initially helped him with Mirkwood epic quests. Organized Sambrog runs, then we switched to tier2 Sword Halls. That turned into massive xp gain for kinnie – he reported some 100.000 xp per instance (with xp accelerator). I did it untill got all instances locked; well, Lotro has a limit of 10 instances per hour. I do not entirely approve his power-levelling. He is some lvl.66, so it won’t take long untill lvl.95 (provided he does Hytbold instances). But it’s his choice after all.

Other kinnie asked for help in North Downs, but he was too quick too hurry and died. Which was strange to see lvl.29 Minstrel dead. He is Minstrel, ranged self-healing tank, capable of killing a mob every 10 seconds. However, we finished his quests quickly.

We talked about Update 13. Folks are saying “easy mode is no more” which disappoints me. Now I could feel powerfull, what does top-level mean…and if they m ake it hard mode, it may mean begining of an end(for me). However, almost no one supports my opinion, lots of players thinks “easy mode has to go”, they are telling virtues and titles would be too important. Well, it’s more pain for me: I did enjoy easy mode by far.

And so weekend has ended, I had 4890 Turbine points. I am waiting for that Update 13 and feeling life is superb in Lotro so far.

Vytautaz turned in task items, reached first level of reputation with Council of the North (5 Turbine points).

NaktiesKarys logged in and was offered to run some “DN” by my Kinship. Name sounded weird, so I just renamed it to “Darth Naboo”. Well, it was Dar Narbugud after all, but who cares?

I went into another hard raid. Initially monsters were not too problematic, AoE worked well and I got lots of deeds, from “kill NN of these” to “inspect these fungus”. Raid was big enough to do some slayer deeds and inspect various fungus species. First named monsters were not too problematic: group was strong, we had minstrels, life was good.

And then came The Blind One. A terrible, too hard monster that spawns Darklings (and Darklings, if touch player, form “black holes” – you cannot move, but can be attacked or healed. Frozen for 10 seconds, in short). Then it spawns Shadows, each equal to original monster. Killing fast is a must, but we were wiped several times in a row. I went to despair once again. What force could deal with such evil that multiplies? I am starting to lose belief in any strategy, but brute force: gather 100 minstrels and ask them to attack at the same time. Finally, we were able to deal with this monster, went through several others and finally were victorious.

After some rest we went so Samat Gul, done it…and it was high time for me to sleep. This “Darth Naboo” raid was interesting, but hard (and I do not like hard ones). If not deeds, I probably would abandon it: now, I have to do deeds here. Samat Gul left me very disappointed. I met with one Orc, attacked him with the strongest attacks…and took too little hp while my colleagues were doing much better. I was wiped by final monster in Darth Naboo…and my colleague, lvl.95 Champion hold the line almost all the time. Something -once again- is wrong with me. Not sure what it is though.

I also tried to loot (voted “greed”) LI runes, applied to low level items, later deconstruct them and gain some add-ons, like “setting of might”. Got several lvl.95 legacies to use on future First Age. I will use more smart approach: will go to Hytbold, loot every single dropped Champion stuff, level it, decon it and use only those legacies I will really need, like AoE, Bracing attack heal and so on. Thus, I will have an almost perfect weapon.

And so the (short) dau has ended, I had 4715 Turbine points and felt happy. Life was good in Lotro.

NaktiesKarys felt still grumpy after last failures with the Rift…but things were not going that grumpy.

First, it was Forges of Khazad Dum. Teamed with one verfy kind Hunter and tried to kill last 36 trolls here. Had to use slayer deed accelerator and managed to finish within second run. Hurray, this deed was finished and some others too. Got nice number of Turbine points + titles + Nimble Goat. Goat looked really cool, a battle one and it had +68 speed. I was very satisfied with this.

Next, came Lumul Nar, the kingdom of merrevail and mirrors. Teamed with 2 kinnies to do deeds: collect mirror shards and kill some merrevail (in Moria and Lumul Nar). Kinnies knew how to operate mirrors, for me it still remains mystery. Finished crystal collecting, one merrevail slayer…and then by accident killed main merroval. Instance was over, but I will do it many times untill I kill all 240 merrevail.

Then went to one instance near Echad Mirobel, finished slayer deed here and one more time witnessed epic story, featuring Amarthiel (need possibly two more runs here to finish deed). Finally, was able to help kinnie with Sambrog, yet another time using /mock on this monster. With Sambrog being lvl.57 and me being 95, all I can say is – poor Sambrog!

Only few deeds remain in Moria and these are grindiest ones. Even slayer deed accelerator won’t help much, but I am determined to do them all. Kinship, as always, is of much help and they have more optimistic approach. For example, I take Rift raid as failure – they think as of victory.

Vytautaz continues to turn it task items and growing this way. He used all Moria reputation items and grew up a bit, earning yet some valuable TPs. DunedanMule, my own alts were inactive.

And so the day has ended, I had 4690 Turbine points, was in good mood. Life was good once again in Lotro.

NaktiesKarys started the day with Vile Maw. Needed 9 tentacles, group gathered too quickly, had to convert to raid. Tentacles were killed withing few minutes, Watcher killed too soon. Deed completed, some meta-deed completed, Turbine points earned. I thought about going with someone to the Forges of Khazad Dum…but then we organized Rift run. Oh my, the Rift, the only place to earn reputation with the Eldgang and turn in some quests! Of course, I was in.

Group was good, all tanks, many minstrels. But then, almost everything turned just plainly wrong. First run to the boss: one side to wrong side, some evil fire-breathing immortal things spawns and I was dead. Resurrected. Next time – monster surrounded by 4 lesser mobs. Tried to attack lesser one, used AoE attack (I am AoE after all), AoE hit main monster – dead again. Next room, some monster with lots of hp, we almost killed it, it was with 1 hp…and then became immortal. No attacks, magic, melee, ranged – helped. Many of us were wiped. Then immortal one summoned orcs, we ran to them, I ran to my kinnies to aid…and was insta-killed. Resurrected again.

Next room was without deaths (strange). Finally – Mr. Balrog. Some kinnies dies because touched water (never ever touch green water!). Then water was cleaned and very soon our group was almost wiped out by some attack, no matter how strong everyone was. Not all kinnies made it to the chamber (the area is extremely hard to navigate). We tried to divide into 2 groups, pull some lame levers. I ran at all speed, saw few trolls running to greet me, was pressing button for attack…and was dead. I did not attack, trolls did not attack – once again, some nuclear weapon used. Retreated, run with one Hunter again…when I stepped on something, we got few flames following us, I tried to range-atack them and was killed. Flames were immortal too.

No one could resurrect me, so I was really angered and retreated. I really hate this instance. In anger, I cancelled all Rift quests, burrying any hope of finishing it…and some meta-deeds. It is just plainly impossible. All “strategy” is just lame, there is no strategy, except one, proven by time.

A military one. NOT invented by me, but by experts. If force A attacks city defended by force B, then force A should be triple stronger as force B. It is a rule, unless one is to use carpet bombing or weapons of mass destruction. Thus: Balrog has ~240.000 hp, hence total hp of players,excluding adds (pets, heralds…) should be ~800.000. Following my calculations, some 100 Minstrels, 75 tanks (guardian/captain) and 25 of any classes are needed to have a small chance of survival. Strategy is too simple: all minstrel fires their storngest attacks at once. Tanks rush to earn valuable 10 seconds for Minstrel to recharge. Maybe then Rift can be won. It can be won in any way by lvl.50s. If we stick to just ~160 players: 100 minstrels, 60 tanks. No champions, burglars etc.

Thus I left angry and grumpy. Switched to XbaE, did the last deeds, managed to show one lvl.12-13 Champion how he could be outperformed by Minstrel, finally did Cartographer of Eriador…and it was over.

And so the day has ended. I had 4605 Turbine points. Day has been…poor…in Lotro.